


simpler times

by papyrocrat



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-04
Updated: 2010-09-04
Packaged: 2017-11-17 14:49:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papyrocrat/pseuds/papyrocrat





	simpler times

Things were simpler before Caroline moved in.After a tumultuous first two months with Molly, who’d rushed and then run to the nearest Kappa house and woken Bennett up at four in the morning several times with her giggling about rolling all over herself, Bennett’s room had been as still as a mind at peace.

But now Caroline is here, and she’s all genuine cheer and alternative music and _Bennieeeee, I wanna go to a party, and it won’t be any fun without my girl_ , and Bennett’s world gets bigger against her every expectation.

No.Not bigger.Size is no guarantee of complexity; look at deserts, they’re nothing but a fistful of sand slipping through your fingers.Her world has wrinkles now, cavernous folds she never expected.And because she can’t say no to Caroline, one of those folds is a party in the basement of a rowdy group home off campus.Caroline slings her left arm tight against Bennett’s shoulders, and uses her other hand to make a hip-level tradeoff with the shaggy redhead who’s always late to English Lit.

Caroline steers them toward a low table in a corner.“Don’t you trust me, Bennie?”

Bennett shoves her hands in her pockets.“I didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, but you were lookin’ it.It’ll be fun.”

They sit down at the table.“Of course I trust you.I’ve just never done this before.”

“Hey, it’s like you said, the need to alter our consciousness is a basic human urge like all the other fun ones.”Bennett feels her eyebrows lift in surprise.“What?I can’t take Anth 101?Sometimes I understand when you say stuff.”

“It’s actually evolutionary psychology, which is a questionable field at best, and anyway, I didn’t think you were listening.”

Caroline glances up from her fidgety task.“I always listen to you.”She grins, and looks back down as she continues.“Besides, I get it.See things from a different angle.Be someone else for a little while.Seems pretty simple to me.”

As she finishes talking, she lifts the joint to her mouth and lights it.Caroline was made to face the fire.

Caroline passes it to her, and Bennett feels included, the way only Caroline can make her feel.She inhales gamely, and only has a moment to think _I don’t get it_ before she coughs.It makes the ashes dance across the table, and she watches them scamper from her embarrassment.

“It’s cool, Bennie,” Caroline says.“I shoulda been a buddy.Let me help you out with that.”Caroline plucks the joint from her fingers and settles her shoulders against the wall.She waits for Bennett to do the same, and when they’re resting arm to arm, Caroline inhales again, with her mesmerizing grace in the face of taboo.

She hardly needs to lean an inch to kiss Bennett full on the mouth.Bennett gasps with pleasure and surprise, and this time her lungs inflate with possibility.She lets Caroline steer and relaxes into the long moment.

When they finally part, Bennett hides her face with her left hand and leans into Caroline’s shoulder.“Are people staring?”

“Who the fuck cares?”The deflection means they are, Bennett knows, but she doesn’t waste too many thoughts on them.“Think you got it now?”Bennett nods, and as she fits her lips where Caroline’s have just been, she believes it.She’s Bennett Halverson; she can do everything.This time she inhales and exhales, still with a wince Caroline didn't need, but she doesn't cough.

She summons courage as insubstantial as smoke, and turns back to Caroline.“I liked your way better, though.”

Caroline grins.“Me, too.”

They pass the night in the corner, and by the time they’re left with paper and ashes, Bennett doesn’t care if anyone’s looking.

“Simpler isn’t better, you know,” she muses out loud, and finds she doesn’t much mind giving voice to her thoughts for once.“Slugs are simple.I wouldn’t want to be a slug.”

Caroline giggles, and so does Bennett, and nobody else in the room is real.

 


End file.
